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First thing, a warning: these photos are really bad, and I apologise, I do!

For this weeks challenge, we went with Brights – after an online discussion about who wears bright colours in winter (which it is here, brrrr), and ignores the seasonal ‘rules’. Which, it turns out, are most of us. Although that said most of my brights aren’t technically bright – these were the only three semi-neon bright colour creme polishes in my collection (of 580+ polishes).

So… the three I used were Mode Say Cheese (yellow), Color Club Screamin’ Fuchsia (um, very LOUD pink, brilliant name for it), and Color Club Abyss (blue). I used a white base – Kleancolor White – and used striping tape on all nails except the accent nail, so the white showed through when I took the tape off. I sponged on the three polishes in a gradient (messy!) and Abyss and Say Cheese combined nicely to make the green.

On my accent nail I used the same three polishes over the white base, but watermarbled with them. All were topped off with Misa BREAKneck top coat.

And my seldom photographed right hand… gak, in terrible condition, too. But shows I did have it on both hands, and the watermarble on that side 😀 Please, please excuse the mess, I had minus 10 mins to clean it up, and as I had cleverly tried to use PVA glue on my cuticles to protect them and it wouldn’t peel off, then the glue stopped the polish remover working, and it was all swears and cusses at my house that morning! sorrrry!

I had more compliments on this mani then almost any other, I guess wearing brights in winter really does help people notice! And luckily from arms length the mess wasn’t so visible. 😀

This… was much prettier than I have hoped for, and these photos just let it down. No top coat here though, that incredible shine is all thanks to Ringer.

The purple jelly base is very sheer, which I had read previously, but means the layering options are amazing. The little particles flick all sorts of colours: green / gold / pink / purple.

And so I had to do photo gymnastics to try and show the shifts, but they were so fast and noticeable in real life.

I want to wear this over all the colours. Actually, although I wont show anyone, I do have it on my toes, which are blue, purple, green, yellow and red (go the rainbow toes) and the shimmer just adds that little bit extra, even at that distance!

Whoop! This is so exciting. My mother and I managed to get hold of some suspension base, and glitters, pigments, micas, dyes. And. We. Went. To. Town.

It was so much fun, setting up testers, finding out what worked and what didn’t, jumping around in excitement when we took the polishes with holographic shimmers and glitters outside into the sunshine. (hah, what am I saying? Almost all of them had some type of holo shimmer, glitter, or Spectraflair!). These are the four we liked the best – two from each of our tests. We made two bottles of each colour, one bottle for each of us 😀 So, very picture heavy post!

Green Opal. Two thick coats on it’s own. It’s sheer, and subtle, but very pretty with the green shimmer and holo glitters.

This was made to be a linear holographic top coat that won’t interfere too much with the colour underneath. Yeah, yeah, done a million times, right? So, add flakies… which tend to pop out in the shade, whereas the holo rainbows dance in the sun. Versatility! Something for every light 🙂
One coat over bare nail… eek. Sorry. Just to show you how sheer it is, and yet still holo and flakie (though the one flake on that nail has disappeared in the vague light).

Look, I said I was sorry, ok?! Just look at the rainbow! 😀

One coat of Kleancolor White, two coats of Topper. This looks pale silver and speckled with the occasional iridescent flake in the shade…

Click to enlarge to see the flakies in this indirect light photo 🙂

and holo in the sun. Moderately quick dry too, thanks to the Spectraflair holographic!

Sunlight wasn’t available. This is kitchen light. Still has rainbows… what does it MEAN?! 😀

One coat of Topper over one coat of Kleancolor Black. Really, really, liked this. in the shade it shows the flakes…

Light to show the rainbow…

And blurry to show ALL THE RAINBOW! Wheee!

One coat of Topper over the same skittles as previous.

Nebula: This is another sheer polish, more sheer than Green Opal. Two coats here, just adds a wash of purple and holo silver glitter to the nails. Quite slow drying, no top coat. Obviously, with a quick dry top coat this would be smoother, and dry, well, quicker :). Two coats indirect light:

In the kitchen light:

One coat of Nebula over one coat of Kleancolour White:

Two coats Nebula over White: Very delicate and pretty lilac with the silver holo glitter. This would need a top coat in real life 🙂

One thick coat of Nebula over Kleancolor Black: Look at the rich BLUE!

Love the extreme colour change of this and Green Opal, it really adds versatility, which I’m a BIG fan of in nail polish, and in life 😀

Over the same skittles as before:

Interesting result, huh? And isn’t it super ugly over the yellow? We do these tests so you don’t have to 😉

And Purple Velvet. Misnamed, like them all, I think. This is blue AND purple, but not blurple. The colours take turns, its a little duochrome-ish. This is two coats on it’s own, no undies, no top coat.

Indirect light

Excuse the mess, I was a leetle tired by this stage, and missing spots during cleanup.

Kitchen light, two coats:

And three coats on its own, no undies, no top coat.

Indirect sunlight

Whole hand photo

Again, this is designed to have an effect in every light (except no light, it doesn’t glow, though that’d be fun!).

Kitchen light, shows the shine nicely here

It has a purple flick in the shade, and the flakies show. In the light the scattered holo shimmer shows, and also a varied purple/red/blue shimmer.

And now it’s purple…

And under a yellow light, which shows the inky depth of it quite nicely…

Strangely enough, although its not colour accurate for my fingers, it’s pretty accurate for the polish in that lighting 🙂

This is very shiny without topcoat, and dries average – fast.

We had a tiny spot of real sunshine this morning, so I took a photo of my least battered fingernails to see if I could get that holo shimmer dancing:

Check this out! This is Bitches Have Birthday, from Darling Diva Polish – her Etsy store is here. She ships internationally, packaging is very good, and really fast now too. 2 weeks, I believe, from order to arrival on the other side of the planet. Pretttty good indeed.

Darling Diva Polish – Bitches Have Birthdays

This polish is GORGEOUS! Seriously. These photos are two thin coats over a PVA glue base coat, with Orly In A Snap top coat.

There are a few bald areas – that’s user error – the jelly base is super smooth, but I have to remember to go back and get the spots just behind the butterflies etc to avoid the ‘polish shadow’ of the larger structures 🙂

It makes me a bit confused because it’s a nice, subtle, grown up colour and the glitter in it is so fun and sparkly – but it all works. Work appropriate Crazy Glitter Polish? I thinks I has it on my nails! Love it. Couldn’t think how I could love it more.

I’d describe this as a rose pink (though in the sunlight it looks more barbie pink) jelly base with blue, green, purple, holographic pink and gold glitters, and then the fun starts. Those are all small/medium sized, and then there are multi-coloured hearts, butterflies, diamonds and more. The glitters are loaded in here, there was absolutely no fishing required, as a matter of fact I was scooping some glitters onto other nails!

See? I have two butterflies AND a diamond aligned along one nail. There would have been three but I stuck it on my middle nail.

Dry time was super fast, and although it’s not glassy smooth, it’s not gritty or annoying. Another coat of topcoat or a thicker one first then a quick dry would make it pretty darn smooth indeed.

For my own interest, I layered one coat of Bitches Have Birthday over Mode Sweetness (2 coats), and then added one coat of Kleancolor Madly Matte. I used Madly Matte because it’s a lovely thick polish, and it’s never matted anything before.

And guess what? It matted this! Hehehe. It’s a slow drying polish, and so I munted most of my polish before I took these photos, so these are what I have left to show 😀

I didn’t want to take this off. And I have more of hers I’m dying to try. First World Problems, how I love thee 😀

Anyway, I’m not normally a ‘pink polish’ person. Nor butterflies. But this polish is the most awesome contrast between girly and blingy, subtle and sparkly, young and not as young – but I can tell you something, it’s not for kids (although I think they’d love it, but they’re not getting mine!). If you’re thinking about getting it… my vote would be for getting it. I’m sure glad I did 😀

Recreating a manicure I love, with link. There are so many awesome nail artists out there, it was hard to choose. But in the end I went with dotting, because my children are going MAD and I know I can dot despite distractions. Although, I did have to redo this twice thanks to my youngest throwing himself into me. This is from Top Coat It, an awesome WordPress nail blogger – and her link is Red and Black Dotticure . Wow, so pretty! As I didn’t want to directly try to copy it, this is a Yellow and Black Dotticure!

I used Mode Say Cheese as the base – two coats. Then I dotted on the 9 black dots using China Glaze Liquid Leather, and then another dot of Say Cheese over each black dot. I didn’t go back and put the centre black dot on, but I just didn’t have the time.

Although I much prefer her Red and Black dotticure, I did like this! I’ll definitely try it again when I get a chance, and a moments peace. 🙂

This challenge has been so interesting! It definitely challenged me to try new things, and I loved that – but I am glad it’s over – so hopefully I can try on some of my other polishes and keep them on for more than a day 😀

Sister V – source of much of my inspiration for this week, suggested spirals as the pattern for day 26 of the 31 Day Nail Polish Challenge. Ok!

I was also inspired in part by Simply Rins, who did the most gorgeous blue rose manicure (check it out, seriously! She’s AMAZING!), and it made me think about changing the colours in the spiral. I wish I’d chosen more colours, and a more opaque light pink, as it wasn’t visible really except as a texture over the light pink base. Next time!

This is Mode Sweetness as the base, which is a brand new to me polish, with OPI The One That Got Away dotted in the middle part of the spiral, and OPI Who Needs A Prince on the outer part of the spiral.

Man, I feel like having a bit of a whinge. This has been… fun… yes, but part of me really wishes we could do one of these challenges every week, not every day. I’d quite like to put more effort into it, and be able to keep wearing them a bit longer! Ok, whinge done, thanks for bearing with me!

This is Inspired By Fashion day – 25 of the 31 Day Nail Polish Challenge. And it’s challenging, because I don’t really pay attention to fashion. But I grabbed the nearest shop brochure (turned out to be Farmers) and had a quick look, and picked out bright colours and feathers as two trends. Well, duh, I have 36 chickens: of COURSE I’m going to home in on feathers. 😀

This is two coats of a brand new Mode nail polish, called Say Cheese (love the name!) and the pointer finger has the tip of a Rhode Island Red feather on it. The feathers ragged because it’s been shed naturally – eg preened to death! 😀 Love that nail polish too – it’s a jelly. Slow to dry though, but fun!

A non-blurry photo – the feather looks like a fishtail because it’s wet. That makes me laugh 😀